Police have been investigating whether the former teacher had sex with the student during a relationship he acknowledged had "crossed" professional boundaries, according to a search warrant filed in King County Superior Court.

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The teacher had been a drama instructor and yearbook adviser at the all-girls school, as well as the hand-bell choir director.

He also worked as webmaster at the school, which has about 380 students in middle and high school classes.

The P-I is not naming the man because he has not been charged.

The age of consent to sex in Washington is 16, unless the other person is in a supervisory position, or is a school employee or foster parent, and is at least five years older than the victim.

The man was arrested on investigation of sexual misconduct with a minor because of his position of authority and the girl's age, Grannis said.

"We are still examining evidence so there may be additional charges," Grannis said, noting that prosecutors would file those.

The sexual misconduct charge has been forwarded to the King County Prosecutor's Office for review, he said.

In February, the girl's mother notified school officials that she was uncomfortable with the frequency of text messages the teacher was sending to her daughter outside school hours, court documents say. The teacher agreed to stop sending messages that weren't school-related.

On Oct. 13, the teacher phoned school officials and acknowledged having had an improper relationship with the teen, but denied any physical or sexual contact. He disclosed it after the girl's mother saw him that day parked near the family home.

He planned to meet the girl at a park and was planning a later trip to Europe with the girl, according to court documents.

School officials contacted police and Child Protective Services after the teacher turned in two school-owned laptops that had photos of naked women and teenage girls downloaded from the Internet, the documents indicate.

Bellevue police obtained a warrant Nov. 4 to search the teacher's North Seattle home, as well as to obtain e-mail records from the hotel and Google Inc., which administers the man's e-mail account.

E-mails and text messages later surfaced in which he and the girl alluded to a sexual encounter they had in a room he rented at the Westin Hotel in Bellevue, according to court documents.

"How I loved having the chance to truly make love to you the way I have always wanted," the teacher allegedly wrote in one message, detailed in court documents.

Officials also learned the teacher e-mailed one of the girl's friends, hoping she could persuade her to erase all text messages from him, according to court documents.

Parents were notified of the teacher's resignation through e-mail in October, and the school held an educational meeting with parents earlier this month.

"Our people attend mandatory training," Peggy O'Connor, the school's director of marketing and communications, said at the time.

"They all know what the boundaries are. Unfortunately, this person admitted that he crossed them."